A Café Should Know Better
I believe in words. You may have noticed that there are very few pictures on the FUSSYlittleBLOG. Some of that is that I don’t want to be bothered with making pictures look good. The other part is a belief that throwing up beautiful pictures of food puts you on the slippery slope to creating food p0rn()graphy.
Still, I appreciate good food photography. When I was working on the Taco Bell advertising business we hired the best in the business to make the food look tasty. And it totally worked. After seeing the action shot where the melting cheese begins to bubble along the edge of their new quesadilla, even I wanted to run out and try one.
Today not only do I have an image to share with you, but it is also an advertisement. I noticed this banner on the Table Hopping blog over at Timesunion.com. And the moment I saw it, I started to get very upset. Mrs. Fussy on the other hand, chuckled at my agony, and insisted I was probably the only person who even noticed, much less cared.
The good people at The Daily Grind will either be very happy that someone actually noticed a banner ad, or they will be less happy that I am calling them to task.
Butter Fried Cookies
Never have I seen such a clamoring for a recipe as many of you displayed last Sunday at the very mention of cookies fried in butter.
I am half tempted to pull a Scheherazade and keep up the level of anticipation. But even now I fear the anticipation is way too high and that people will be disappointed as I reveal the recipe today.
Here is the thing. TECHNICALLY they are probably not fried. My Food Lover’s Companion says that to fry is “To cook food in hot fat over moderate to high heat.” These cookies kind of do that, but some might suggest the recipe is closer to a confit, which is “slowly cooked in its own fat.”
But in my book these are just shades of gray. Either way they are delicious. I’ll explain a bit more after the recipe. In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m 98% sure this is the recipe I used. But I do remember a few things that were different, and I have adjusted it accordingly.
There Will Be Brisket
Well, that was a surprise.
As I mentioned yesterday, a Passover Seder was on the horizon and brisket was going to be on the menu. What I didn’t mention, but implied through my fiendishly clever link tags, was that the brisket was going to come from Capital Q.
While brisket may be a traditional food, getting it smoked and from a restaurant whose URL is eatmypork.com is not. But a couple of years ago I successfully brought an entire Capital Q smoked brisket down to Connecticut for a family Seder at my Aunt N’s house, and it was the belle of the ball.
So it seemed like a no-brainer when a smaller contingent of my family was gathering in Albany to outsource the cooking of the main protein to the more than capable hands of Sean Custer, the mad genius behind one of my favorite food joints in the area.
Bread, I Love You
The simple pleasure of a hot loaf of pain d’epi with a healthy smear of Pamplie butter is too great to bear. The butter melts on contact with the light yeasty crumb, and the crust offers such a satisfying crunch before it yields to the warm soft center below.
I have loved bread for a long time.
And not just fancy bread with French names. As a young child I remember loving the soft fluffy indulgence of Wonder bread. In college I would sit down with a loaf of sandwich bread and a tub of margarine and just eat until I couldn’t eat any more. Even today, one of my favorite anytime snacks is toast.
I find the smell of toast to be intoxicating. In fact, now that I have started eating toast, my father-in-law is eating it too. On a recent visit he found the smell of bread toasting impossible to resist.
Of course I mention all of this because tonight is the first night of Passover, and it will be eight days until I can enjoy these delectable delights again.
My Sweet Side
How could I have been so delinquent? The FUSSYlittleBLOG is coming up on its one year anniversary, and I have said precious little about dessert, or for that matter sweets in general. Oh sure, there was the odd post about eating ice cream in winter, or how I hate s’mores, but those hardly count.
Everyone has their own path into the realm of cooking. For me it was learning how to cook desserts. I was just recently reminded of this during a recent twitter dialog with ElizabethEss where we were discussing crepes.
This will not just be a trip down memory lane. Today will be a jumping off point for future posts on sweets and desserts. While I do not make them much these days, I still have plenty to say on the topic, and maybe I can even compel some people to quit spreading Nutella on tortillas. But since all the desserts I have prepared have an unusual similarity, I thought it was important to give you a little background.
Important Liqueurs: Cointreau
Last month I thought it was a good idea to start writing about a few important liqueurs. Now, as the weather is starting to warm up, and people are starting to think about spring and summer, there is no better time to talk about one of the hardest working liqueurs in the business, Cointreau.
There is no better time because people will soon be heading to beaches. And where there are beaches there are margaritas. And sadly Cointreau will be absent in far too many of those drinks as lazy bartenders throw together tequila and some gussied up sour mix. Stay tuned for a post dedicated to the margarita in the near future.
But this liqueur is not being featured because of its necessity in America’s favorite cocktails (Cointreau plays a key role in the ubiquitous cosmopolitan as well). Rather, it is at the top of its class and is an amazingly versatile ingredient for both classic and modern cocktails.
Failure to Communicate
It is time to break out the big guns.
There are plenty of ethnic restaurants in the Albany area. A few of them are truly authentic versions of regional cuisine. Honestly, I’m not exactly sure what to call the others.
I mean, how would you characterize a restaurant with a Japanese name that served sushi, but also had an extensive Chinese menu, and whose placemats bore the descriptions of the Chinese zodiac?
But one criticism I hear time and time again is that people go into a Thai or Chinese restaurant and ask for their food to be spicy, but what comes back is an anemic dish that is clearly intended to be spicy for white people, yet not actually authentically and blisteringly spicy.
Well, I think I might have a solution to all that. But it’s a little complicated.
Crazy About High Fructose Corn Syrup
You know sometimes you just have a crazy feeling about things. Sometimes that crazy feeling is just that, crazy. And other times you may find out you are right.
Long before people became widely aware of the dangers of partially hydrogenated oils, I was scouring the markets for products without the dreaded ingredient. There had been some early reports that showed potential health concerns, so avoiding these manmade fats just felt right to me. At the time, my snack food options were limited to Mi-Del Ginger Snaps. Luckily, they were pretty tasty.
My crazy feeling du jour involves genetically modified organisms. Nobody is really paying that much attention to it today. But since the largest genetically modified crops are corn, canola and soy, GMOs are in practically everything. Most consumers have no idea this is going on, because in this country products that contain GMOs do not need to be labeled.
But for now, let’s focus on the present. Because there has been recent news about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that I thought would be interesting to share with the class. And even if you’ve seen the research already, now you can get my take.
Remembrance of Italian Sausages Past
Really I should wait until it is the summer fair and festival season to write about this topic. But recently I was reminded of what a special place this sandwich holds in my heart. The power of taste memory is amazing.
Perhaps this should be a contender for one of the World’s Greatest Sandwiches, but I don’t quite feel like having the argument with Raf about whether a sausage sandwich is legitimately a sandwich, rather than a hoagie or some other variation on the form. But I digress.
Last week Albany Jane and I went out for lunch. While we intended to go somewhere else, we ended up at Morrette’s King of Steaks in Schenectady. And though we ordered their famous steak sandwich, we also learned they make their own sausage, and felt compelled to get one of those sandwiches too.
The first bite brought me back to one of my favorite foods growing up.
Bad Attitude Rules
It never ceases to amaze me how sensitive some people can be. For some, a little bit of rudeness or inconsiderate behavior from the staff at a restaurant is a personal affront akin to spitting in their food.
Last week, All Over Albany mentioned my love of Mahar’s. I was kind of surprised, since the beer I was talking about in my post would likely get me thrown out of this temple to the gods of brewing. Mahar’s isn’t just a beer bar, it’s a serious place for serious lovers of seriously good beer. And they do not suffer fools.
They make it plain as day on their website, which is a staggering work of genius. And I do not use those words lightly.
Bartender Bill Deans and Comic Book Guy Jeff Albertson might just have been separated at birth*. That is, if the later wasn’t a fictional character. The attitude is the same: the smug superiority that comes from a vast depth of knowledge that other, less dedicated mortals will likely never possess. And you know what? I’m fine with that. They have earned it.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 